http://allafrica.com/stories/201608190653.html


Kenya: Lion Snatches Kenyan Girl From Home, Kills Her in Bushes

By Charles Lwanga


Residents of a village in the coastal Kilifi County are living in fear of attacks by wild animals after a lion killed a 10-year-old girl on Tuesday night.

The attack is said to have happened at around 3am (0000 GMT) when Winnie Makupe was sleeping in the family's grass-thatched house with other family members.

"We were awoken by screams after a lion sneaked into our house and grabbed Makupe with its jaws and ran into the thick bush," recounted the victim's grandfather Katana Karisa at a hospital mortuary.

Mr Karisa said efforts to rescue her were futile as the hungry lion would recharge and chase them when they approached the scene.

"Neighbours, who heard the screams, joined us while armed with pangas, bows and arrows," he said, adding that "by this time, the lion had already vanished into the bushes and the screams of our dear one had also diminished."

Police and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers joined the search for the girl in the hope of finding her alive.

"We found a traumatising scene of the girl's remains a kilometre away from the home at around 11am (0800 GMT)," he said.



Human-wildlife conflict

Earlier, residents of a nearby village also rescued 14-year-old schoolboy Kelvin Mbingwa from a lion that attacked him in broad daylight.

A local politician Stanley Kenga urged the government to intervene in order to end human-wildlife conflict.

"A group of about five lions and [an] uncounted number of hyenas suspected to have escaped from Tsavo National Park and Boni forest in Tana River County have terrorised residents for the past two months," he said.

Mr Kenga said residents are living in fear of being attacked by lions and hyenas that have invaded the area following a prolonged drought in the park.

Contacted for comment, the KWS coast conservation assistant director Adan Alio said the agency had dispatched a team of game rangers to track down and capture the animals, adding that affected residents should file for compensation.

Sad, but life goes on in rural Africa. . . . .

That happened when I was in Kenya many years ago. Some villagers entered our camp carrying a young girl who had been snatched by a lion. It had dropped her when it jumped over a boma and was chased away. The villagers waited a couple of days for her to recover but she only got worse. They brought her in because they heard we had a physician with us. We arranged for a helicopter to evacuate her and off she went. I remember seeing the deep punctures left by the fangs. I asked the doctor what he thought her chances were. He said her chances would have been excellent if they had brought her in right after it happened. But he said they brought her in too late and she had developed a serious case of peritonitis. He doubted she would survive the night.

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
That happened when I was in Kenya many years ago. Some villagers entered our camp carrying a young girl who had been snatched by a lion. It had dropped her when it jumped over a boma and was chased away. The villagers waited a couple of days for her to recover but she only got worse. They brought her in because they heard we had a physician with us. We arranged for a helicopter to evacuate her and off she went. I remember seeing the deep punctures left by the fangs. I asked the doctor what he thought her chances were. He said her chances would have been excellent if they had brought her in right after it happened. But he said they brought her in too late and she had developed a serious case of peritonitis. He doubted she would survive the night.

It is sad hearing that.

Yes, Shootaway. I have seen a lot of nasty, nasty stuff but I still remember that little girl's face and the pain she was in. Maybe it left an impression with me because my daughter was just an infant at the time. Funny how that stuff goes sometimes.